GM Should be Accountable for the Errors of the Past
Everything is not going well for GM. After a 1.6 million vehicle recall, the American automaker faces a $350 million dollar lawsuit that could get ugly.
Everything started on January 13, when GM initiated a recall on 778,619 Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 vehicles because of a faulty ignition switch. If the owner hangs too much stuff on their keychain, the added weight can cause the switch to shift to the ‘’Off’’ or ‘’Accessory’’ position during driving. This not only turns off some critical components of the car (such as the engine, traction control, power steering, ABS brakes, etc.), it also prevents the airbags from deploying in an accident. There have been 6 deaths related to this in the Cobalt and G5.
The situation took a turn for the worst when the recall was expanded to 1.6 million vehicles, and the number of casualties to 13.
GM knew about the problem since 2001, about 4 years BEFORE releasing the Cobalt and G5. They supposedly chose to close their eyes to the problem. They issued a service bulletin in 2005, asking dealers to install a snap-on key insert to ‘’minimize risks’’. Only 474 customers ever saw those inserts, though.
On March 19, the owner of a Saturn Ion, another recalled car, decided to pursue GM. While it is not the first claim to come up in this case, this one is different in one key point: the lawyer who worked the case states that ‘’New GM’’ (as a reminder, ‘’Old GM’’ went bankrupt in 2009, before New GM rose up from the ashes of the dead company) should be accountable for the errors of its predecessor, since they concealed the problem as well. Up to now, all the other lawsuits were directed at Old GM.